Things are a little tense over at AOL, with hundreds of Patch staffers facing layoffs as the…
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It all started with an interview on CNBC earlier today:

"As a C.E.O. and as a management team," said Armstrong, "we had to decide, do we pass the $7.1 million of Obamacare costs to our employees? Or do we try to eat as much of that as possible and cut other benefits?"

Armstrong later elaborated on the corporate rationale for giving everyone a worse retirement plan. It turns out, chicks can be expensive!

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"Two things that happened in 2012," he said, according to a transcript provided by an AOL employee. "We had two AOL-ers that had distressed babies that were born that we paid a million dollars each to make sure those babies were OK in general. And those are the things that add up into our benefits cost. So when we had the final decision about what benefits to cut because of the increased healthcare costs, we made the decision, and I made the decision, to basically change the 401(k) plan."

I'm sure it would be completely impossible for anyone at AOL to figure out who those women with troubled childbirths might be, right? An AOLer tells Capital NY that "people were just shocked that two particular women would be singled out on a company-wide call"—but given Armstrong's history on conference talks, I guess it could have been worse? Good luck at your conference, Timbo!